Since winning an upset election bid in a race featuring two incumbent city councilmen and a well-known former officeholder last year, Jim Clarke has hit the ground running and seemingly has very little time to stop.
At a recent interview with the News on his freshman year on Culver City’s City Council, Clarke consulted his Blackberry to view his upcoming schedule.
Various events were lined up one after the other for several days. “Oh look: I think I have three free hours here,” he said with a tone of surprise.
Clarke said he is trying to govern the way that he campaigned, when he won a two-year council seat in his first election, overtaking incumbent Scott Malsin last April.
Clarke is serving a two- year term because of Malsin’s decision to resign from office in December 2011 in order to keep his family’s healthcare benefits intact and subsequently ran again the next year. Election rules dictated that the fourth-place finisher would run for serve out Malsin’s original term, which expires in 2014.
The freshman councilman says he will seek office again next year. “I’m going to start the process very shortly to let people know that,” he said. Because of the Culver City Unified School District’s Board of Education election in November, Clarke said he would probably “go dormant” for a few months and then renew his campaign in December.
The decision to run months ahead of the next election is a new experience for Clarke. He decided to run for office in 2012 was made in matter of seconds.
“I was at a meeting when I learned that (former councilman) Chris Armenta was not going to run and there was going to be an opening with four positions and only two incumbents and within 90 seconds I decided, ‘I’m running for city council,” he recalled. “It was the first time in the city’s history (an election with four seats and only two incumbents) and there would not be another opportunity like this.”
The councilman mentioned how quickly those in their first term must shake off the euphoria of winning and soon tackle perhaps the city’s most pressing matter shortly after winning the election.
“One of the interesting aspects about the way the elections are in Culver City is you get elected April and almost immediately, within a month you’re going into budget negotiations,” he said.
Clarke came in at a time of shrinking municipal revenues coupled with the loss of the state’s redevelopment agencies, which were disbanded by the state Legislature in 2011. Like his council colleagues, he was a proponent of Measure Y, the sales tax measure that Culver City passed Nov. 6.
Clarke said the professionalism of the council is something that allowed him to ease into his new position with virtually no trouble. “What I’ve been pleasantly pleased about is the camaraderie and the good working relationship that I have with my colleagues on the council,” he said. “I believe that good government actually starts with being able to have a council that is able to get along with each other and find ways to deal with issues.”
He thanked his council colleague Andrew Weissman for taking him under his wing and tutelage during his first year. “I was very fortunate that he brought me along so that I could have a pretty good understanding of what the issues are,” Clarke said. “He was able to help me on my learning curve and that was very positive for me.”
Weissman said Clarke is a quick study who does his homework. “I didn’t know Jim at all when he decided to run (for council,” said Weissman, who was elected to his second term in office with Clarke last year. “I think he has done a very good job in his first year and I think he takes his job very seriously.”
Clarke said he wasn’t that surprised about the legislative aspect of his new job, due in part because of his work with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. He is Villaraigosa’s director of federal relations.
One of the advantages to working in the Los Angeles municipal government is Clarke often is privy to pending and potential legislative actions at the city, state and federal level and he is able to relay them back to Culver City with an understanding of what the city’s staff and elected leaders need to know.
“By the nature of my day job, I’m able to pass on information back to Culver City on issues that might be of interest to us, too,” he noted. “I’m not solely relying on the staff her in Culver City to brief me.”
At council meetings, Clarke takes notes of what his constituents say on a variety of topics that he can refer to at a later date. During the interview, he displayed nearly a year’s worth of notes with names and dates.
“I’m not playing with my cell phone or iPad,” he said.
A highlight of his first term was CicLAvia, the international event in March where residents are encouraged to skate and bicycle on a Sunday designed to get people out of their cars. Clarke played a large role in organizing Culver City as a “hub” for the event, which traveled down Venice Boulevard near Culver City.
“We had probably about 15,000 people here that day, and every restaurant in our downtown did their best day of businesses that they’ve ever done,” he said proudly.
One of his frustrations is the delay in being able to set policy due to extenuating circumstances. “I had a particular frustration with the (citywide) parking study that we did, and we’ve been waiting for it for a year.
“But the fact is, we’ve also had to cut back on city staff,” Clarke noted.
Weissman, known for his congenial humor, has given his new colleague a nickname.
“I call him ‘Mr. Everywhere,’ because he’s everywhere,” Weissman said. “I think he really enjoys being out meeting people.”
An example of his being in many places can be attested to by some of the city’s residents. Vincent Motyl, who resides on Fay Avenue in east Culver City, told the News last year that only one elected leader of the council had visited them to learn about their troubles, associated who noise from the Expo light rail line. “Jim Clarke is the only one who has been over here,” said Motyl, a former Civil Service commissioner.
Clarke wants his constituents to know that his job as a city councilman is not something that he takes lightly.
“Every time that I go into a council meeting and I sit down in my chair at the dais, I’m very appreciative of the opportunity that I’ve been given. It’s kind of all inspiring for me,” he said.
Clarke likened his experience to his tenure working as the chief of staff of Rep. Diane Watson (D- Culver City) in Washington D.C. when he would walk into the Capitol each day. “If you don’t get a chill right up your spine, then you really didn’t belong there,” he concluded. “That’s how I feel about being on the council and being here in Culver City.”
